Donald Trump Says 'Central Park Five' Were Guilty

Trump responded to CNN after one of the five sought an apology

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Raymond Santana, right, Kevin Richardson, and Yusef Salaam, left, react to supporters Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013, in New York. The three men who were exonerated in the 1989 Central Park Jogger case, were in court for a hearing in a $250 million federal lawsuit they filed against the city after their sentences were vacated. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Donald Trump stepped back into one of the most racially charged controversies in New York City history this week, saying he still believed the "Central Park Five" were guilty.

Two years after a judge approved a $41 million settlement with the five men, Trump told CNN they should not have been exonerated, after one of the men said he was hoping for an apology from the Republican presidential nominee.

"They admitted they were guilty," Trump told CNN in a statement. "The police doing the original investigation say they were guilty."

The five black and Hispanic defendants were convicted as teenagers in the rape and assault of a white woman. They served six to 13 years in prison.

Following their arrest, Trump took out full-page ads in the city's newspapers calling for New York to bring back the death penalty, though he did not explicitly say those five defendants should be executed.

Their convictions were thrown out in 2002 because of evidence that someone else, acting alone, was responsible. The victim was found in the brush with more than 75 percent of her blood drained from her body and her skull smashed.

She was in a coma for 12 days, suffered permanent damage and remembers nothing about the attack.